Journey from Social Media to Youth Empowerment

国家

活动

Creating opportunities for policy debate

“The Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) has been created to promote effective, targeted investment and build partnership, capacities and mutual accountabilities at all levels of the agricultural system so as to ensure that today’s agricultural research will meet the needs of the resource-poor end user.”

As history, GCARD1 was held in March 2010 (France) which focused on Enhancing Development Impact from Research and GCARD2 in November 2012 (Uruguay) for Delivering the Change. This year in April 2016, GCARD3 will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa by focusing on Shaping the Future of Agriculture Together.

In 2012, I got opportunity to participate in GCARD2 as Social Reporter which was managed by Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) under the financial support of Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). There were more than 25 young social reporters, guided by Peter Casier in 2 days intensive training of social media and social reporting. I am still remembering my first blogpost from GCARD2, Farmers’ cooperation: Successful story of cattle farming in Uruguay.

After the training, the participants took off on-site with blogging, tweeting, facebooking, flickring, and more, all in order to share the outcomes of the GCARD2 with the world and include more people in the discussions. During opening ceremony, GCARD2 Social Media Team received their Certificate from H.E. Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Tabaré Aguerre and we were also invited in a private meeting with the Uruguayan President, the Honorable, Jose Mujica.

Additionally, I got opportunity to meet representatives of the YPARD in GCARD2. Hearing about YPARD’s aims and objectives, I immediately decided to join. I highly appreciate its effort to link young agricultural professionals together, provide information, show the many opportunities existing in agricultural development, share the success stories of young role models and encourage young people to become more involved in agriculture. I grew up in family with a long history in agriculture. My parents and grandparents, who are still engaged in both subsistence and commercial agriculture, introduced me to this art and science of survival since my childhood.

Currently, we are running EduMala Mentorship Program in support of very dynamic working team members which objective is to share information about coordination, negotiation, management and develop interpersonal skills among young professionals, those who are directly engaged with YPARD Nepal activities.

For myself, GCARD2 Social Media Training was a very strong foundation to keep my willingness forward. After that I have been continuously engaging in global events like, #AASW6, #GLFCOP19, #WCA2014, #GLFCOP20, # Forests2015, #GLFCOP21, etc. through my social channels. Also, I am implementing those lesson learned in YPARD Nepal activities and always more than happy to share among new comers who are passionate in youth and agriculture.

Developing countries like, Nepal where poverty, unemployment and youth migration are more dominant among other problems. I believe, youth are primary conduit of development since young people are open-minded attitude to technology and their different perspective, vision and motivation can contribute to practical solutions. However, when we are talking about empowering today’s youth, it is also equally important to remember that a significant portion of today’s farmers are not youth and women’s role in agriculture is often unrecognized.

So for tackling bigger concerns of economic boost, self-employment, entrepreneurship, sustainability and societal wellbeing, we need to think of adding more innovative terms next to the word ‘Agri’, such as Agri-preneurs, Agri-business, and so on… by keeping youth and women as central attraction for agricultural development to ensure better rural futures. Our foresight needs to strengthening rural areas and creating diversification of the rural economy and fostering rural-urban connections. Innovative thought is needed indeed and I hope #GCARD3 will cover these issues to ensure no one leave behind!

SDG 15 was created to bring attention to the negative side effects from agricultural and industrial development. Youth therefore can play a supporting role to increase awareness on environmental conservation and promote the agenda of SDG for agricultural sustainability to make sure others are aware about it.

After growing up in an environment where agriculture is not seen as an important career for young people, I realize that the potential youth groups are largely ignored in policies and programs. The Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) must engage young people in innovations and entrepreneurial activities or else they will continue migrating to cities in search of better options for living.

As a professional employed in agricultural projects wherever possible, I try to involve fellow young agricultural practitioners in development work. In addition to my work, I also give visiting lectures at Madan Bhandari Agro-Technical College at Ghorahi, Dang where I share my knowledge and experience on agricultural mechanization to students as this is relatively new in Nepal.

Today, my activities have created jobs for young people interested in livestock development, encouraged many farmers already frustrated with inadequate productivity, empowered women in the livestock value chain and have contributed immensely to the rapid multiplication of livestock and sustainability of livestock value chain in Nigeria and West Africa.

I believe that agriculture was meant to be my destiny and I am grateful for being inspired to pursue a career in science. If I had to choose all over again, I would without a doubt and a second thought choose agriculture. I love being an agronomist. It gives me enormous sense of job satisfaction and achievement.

Because of the universal reach of agriculture, I believe my career in it has, and will continue to have, a truly positive impact on the global community. #IamAg, I am involved in agriculture and surrounded by it. #AreYouAg too?

When I look back, I realise that the job I am doing today did not exist when I was a child or at secondary school. I just followed by heart and passion, and did what I feel happy doing. Therefore, my advice to someone interested in my career is to first of all love what you do.

My advice to be successful in an agricultural career is to not only focus on passing the exams and finishing all your tasks. Tomorrow you will be the one who will feed the people and you must know how to produce healthy food. Your worth will only be equal to what you know.

If you are looking for a job that gives you real job satisfaction, inner peace and a relationship with nature then I invite you to study agriculture. Agriculture is a noble profession because it was man’s first occupation and remains critical to the survival of mankind.